China

Photo credit: Notebook Italia
Chinese smartphone maker ZTE hasn’t officially announced the Axon S, but its design was leaked on the iF Design World Guide website, revealing some interesting features. Not much is known about what’s powering the handset, but we do know that it features a horizontal slider design that conceals two front cameras and three rear cameras. Other features include: an OLED display with an under-the-screen fingerprint reader and 5G in some markets. Read more for pictures of the leaked ZTE Axon V and additional information.

NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is a pricey graphics card to say the least, but things just got a lot more expensive, thanks to Colorful’s limited edition iGame Kudan model. This Steampunk-inspired card will be limited to just 1,000-units and priced at a whopping $3,000. It’s not all about the looks, as it does come factory overclocked to 1,800MHz, and for comparison, the Founder’s Edition clocks in at 1,635MHz, while 1,545MHz for a reference card. Other upgrades include a triple-slot cooler that combines air and water cooling with three fans as well as numerous heatpipes. Read more for additional pictures and information.

Photo credit: Daily Mail
China’s first Mars simulation base has just opened to the public, and it’s located in Mangya city, in Northwest China’s Qinghai Province. Many consider Qinqhai’s red rock area the most Martian-like place on Earth, with its natural features, landscape and climate. Visitors can try and solve problems they might face on the Red Planet, such as planting potatoes for food and using solar technology for power generation. The base covers an area of 53,330 square meters, and can accommodate up to 60 people in its capsules / tents. Construction began in June 2018 at a cost of about 150 million yuan ($22.3 million). Read more for an aerial view video of the base.

There’s facial recognition, and now, Watrix Technology’s Gait Recognition System (GRS), which can recognize a person’s walk from their body shape and the angle of arm movement to their posture. Individual traits are recorded in a database that the software then uses when attempting to identify people with a 96% accuracy. “Covering your legs would reduce the recognition score but we analyse all of a person’s body. With facial recognition people need to look into a camera – cooperation is not needed for them to be recognized [by our technology],” said Huang Yongzhen, co-founder and chief executive of Watrix. Read more for another video and additional information.

Photo credit: CNET
TCL Communication didn’t want to be left out of the foldable phone craze at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona, so they came with their own showcase of mobile phones using their new DragonHinge technology. What this means is that each one of these devices uses a custom flexible AMOLED display from TCL’s sister company, CSOT, and DragonHinge technology, to create a mechanical housing, enabling them to fold and bend in support of a variety of use cases with seamless movement. The first consumer-ready devices are slated to arrive in 2020. Read more for another video, additional pictures and information.

China’s Xinhua news agency revealed its newest news anchor, Xin Xiaomeng, the world’s first female anchor powered by advanced artificial intelligence technology. In the video above, she announced that her official debut will happen some time in March. “Henceforth, rather than working behind the desk, I’ll be broadcasting the news in front of the desk,” the digital model said. Instead, I’ll be broadcasting from a standing position. I can make more hand gestures and facial expressions. Now I have my own name, Xin Xiaohao. Thanks to this upgrade, I’ll be able to conduct better broadcasts,” said Xiaomeng. Her appearance and voice were inspired by a real-life Xinhua broadcaster named Qu Meng. Read more for this week’s compilation of fascinating images.

Photo credit: Lei Jun
The Xiaomi Mi 9 is set to be officially unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona next week, and we already got a sneak peek at the Explorer Edition’s transparent back, but the visible parts aren’t what you think. According to company chief Lei Jun, the components are all etched onto a 0.3mm aluminum sheet using a CNC machine. Read more for a video, another picture and additional information.

Photo credit: Dwingeloo Radio Telescope
Chinese satellite Longjiang-2 is currently in lunar orbit and managed to snap a photo of both the far side of the Moon and Earth in a single shot. Longjiang-2 might have actually captured more incredible footage had its companion satellite, Longjiang-1, not gotten lost during its mission. Read more to see the non color corrected version of the photo.

China’s lunar lander has just woken up from a two-week-long hibernation on the far side of the moon, and recorded temperatures as low as 190° C (-310° F) during its first lunar night, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). This was lower than those experienced by previous US missions to the near side of the moon, said Zhang He, executive director of the Chang’e-4 mission, to Xinhua news agency. “That’s probably due to the difference in lunar soil composition between the two sides of the moon,” he said. Read more for another video and additional information.

Xiaomi president and co-founder Lin Bin has confirmed that the company will be releasing a folding mobile phone by posting a teaser on Weibo earlier this week. Unlike similar devices previewed by its competitors, this flexible device can fold on both sides, and the UI automatically adjusts. “After tackling flexible folding display, four-way folding hinge, flexible cover tech, MIUI adaptation and other technical challenges, we have made the first foldable phone, and should also be the world’s first dual-folding phone. This symmetrically dual-outer-folding form factor perfectly merges the experience of a tablet and a phone, it’s both practical and beautiful. Even though it’s still a prototype, we’re showing it to you all. Feel free to share, comment and like. If you all like it, we will consider mass producing it. Also, we would like to give this prototype a name. What do you think? I have two: Mi Dual Flex, Mi MIX Flex. Suggestions are welcome,” said Bin’s post on Weibo. Read more a collection of fascinating images from around the web.